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Decentralized optimization is a promising parallel computation paradigm for large-scale data analytics and machine learning problems defined over a network of nodes. This paper is concerned with decentralized non-convex composite problems…
We consider robust optimization problems, where the goal is to optimize in the worst case over a class of objective functions. We develop a reduction from robust improper optimization to Bayesian optimization: given an oracle that returns…
In this paper, we propose a novel solution for non-convex problems of multiple variables, especially for those typically solved by an alternating minimization (AM) strategy that splits the original optimization problem into a set of…
We establish risk bounds for Regularized Empirical Risk Minimizers (RERM) when the loss is Lipschitz and convex and the regularization function is a norm. In a first part, we obtain these results in the i.i.d. setup under subgaussian…
We study conditional risk minimization (CRM), i.e. the problem of learning a hypothesis of minimal risk for prediction at the next step of sequentially arriving dependent data. Despite it being a fundamental problem, successful learning in…
Submodularity is one of the most well-studied properties of problem classes in combinatorial optimization and many applications of machine learning and data mining, with strong implications for guaranteed optimization. In this thesis, we…
Standard stochastic optimization methods are brittle, sensitive to stepsize choices and other algorithmic parameters, and they exhibit instability outside of well-behaved families of objectives. To address these challenges, we investigate…
Several fundamental problems that arise in optimization and computer science can be cast as follows: Given vectors $v_1,\ldots,v_m \in \mathbb{R}^d$ and a constraint family ${\cal B}\subseteq 2^{[m]}$, find a set $S \in \cal{B}$ that…
In order to circumvent statistical and computational hardness results in sequential decision-making, recent work has considered smoothed online learning, where the distribution of data at each time is assumed to have bounded likeliehood…
We consider a distributionally robust formulation of stochastic optimization problems arising in statistical learning, where robustness is with respect to uncertainty in the underlying data distribution. Our formulation builds on…
Recently, invariant risk minimization (IRM) was proposed as a promising solution to address out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization. However, it is unclear when IRM should be preferred over the widely-employed empirical risk minimization…
We develop a framework for convexifying a fairly general class of optimization problems. Under additional assumptions, we analyze the suboptimality of the solution to the convexified problem relative to the original nonconvex problem and…
In this paper we analyze several new methods for solving nonconvex optimization problems with the objective function formed as a sum of two terms: one is nonconvex and smooth, and another is convex but simple and its structure is known.…
We consider a popular family of constrained optimization problems arising in machine learning that involve optimizing a non-decomposable evaluation metric with a certain thresholded form, while constraining another metric of interest.…
Despite the recent development in machine learning, most learning systems are still under the concept of "black box", where the performance cannot be understood and derived. With the rise of safety and privacy concerns in public, designing…
The paper provides global optimization algorithms for two particularly difficult nonconvex problems raised by hybrid system identification: switching linear regression and bounded-error estimation. While most works focus on local…
The theoretical and empirical performance of Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM) often suffers when loss functions are poorly behaved with large Lipschitz moduli and spurious sharp minimizers. We propose and analyze a counterpart to ERM…
We consider a regression setting where observations are collected in different environments modeled by different data distributions. The field of out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization aims to design methods that generalize better to test…
We consider joint optimization and learning problems arising in real-time decision systems. While most existing work focuses primarily on convex, revenue-based objectives, we extend this line of research to multi-objective formulations. In…
Non-convex optimization is a critical tool in advancing machine learning, especially for complex models like deep neural networks and support vector machines. Despite challenges such as multiple local minima and saddle points, non-convex…